Republicans and Supreme Court Nominee: Hoist With Their Own Petard

Alleges Kirkland reports on Senator Orrin Hatch’s claim the President would not nominate a moderate justice like Merrick Garland on Talking Points Memo.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told Newsmax on Friday that President Obama wouldn’t nominate a “moderate” like Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the Utah senator was proven wrong.

“The President told me several times he’s going to name a moderate, but I don’t believe him,” Hatch told the conservative news site on Friday.

“[Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” he continued. “He probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants.”

The President nominated Garland, the chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to the nation’s highest court in a formal announcement from the White House Rose Garden Wednesday morning.

Hatch has offered up high praise for Garland before, telling Reuters in 2010 that he would personally help the D.C. judge win Senate confirmation if Obama nominated him to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Hatch told Reuters at the time that Garland would be “a consensus nominee,” and that there was “no question” he would earn bipartisan Senate support.